FORMULY ODPUSTENIA, PREPÁČENIA A OSPRAVEDLNENIA V PRAGMATICKÝCH SÚVISLOSTIACH
THE FORGIVENESS, PARDON AND APOLOGY FORMULAS IN PRAGMATIC CONTEXTS

Summary/Abstract: This study interprets the forgiveness, pardon and apology formulas in pragmatic contexts. We focus on (a) their interpretation from the perspective of primary and secondary use and on (b) the discoursive success of verb-noun collocations, i.e. collocations of the apologetic verbs and nouns with a common attribute of ‘transgression’. We start from the position of the speaker who presents himself/herself as either the offending or the damaged party. In the role of the offender, he/she either makes an apologetic utterance to the addressee, or asks/begs for an apology, pardon or forgiveness. In the role of the damaged, he/she conveys forgiveness and/or lack thereof, or excuse and/or lack thereof, to the interlocutor. The study focuses on the use of cooperation and politeness strategies (in particular the maxims of generosity and tactfulness) and the public face (we anticipate that the speaker awaits an ‘egocentric’ attitude). The formulas of secondary apologies will be interpreted as a specific politeness strategy that reflects the emphatic nature of the speaker toward the addressee and maximizes speaker's tactfulness. We will show that the Slovak language possesses these functionally supported formulaic and ritualized formulas: phatic and reconciliation formulas, formulas with the ‘lack of understanding’ function, reservations and warnings. The discoursive success of the verb-noun collocations will be identified through correspondence analysis, which renders a correspondence map showing the perimeters of mental apologetic zones in the Slovak language.

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